Contact details

Dr Staresina's research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying episodic memory in humans. He is interested in how different brain mechanisms – in particular subregions of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) - contribute to successful encoding, consolidation and recollection of multiple event details. To address this question, he uses a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electrophysiological recordings (iEEG, MEG) and behavioural testing.

Qualifications

PhD in Experimental Psychology (New York University, USA)

MA in Psychology (University of Vienna, Austria)

Biography

Dr Staresina did his undergraduate research at the University of Vienna, Austria, using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study episodic memory encoding and retrieval (supervised by Dr Peter Walla). For his Ph.D. training, he moved to New York City, where he applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at NYU’s Department of Psychology (supervised by Dr Lila Davachi), focusing on the division of labour in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) during successful memory formation.

Following his graduation from NYU, he took up a 1-year post-doctoral position at the Department of Epilepsy at the University of Bonn, Germany, where he used intracranial Electroencephalography (iEEG) to investigate the oscillatory dynamics of the hippocampus and surrounding areas during memory processes (working with Dr Juergen Fell).

He then secured a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, which allowed him to spend time at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge (working with Dr Rik Henson), at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen (working with Dr Ole Jensen) and at Stanford University’s Department of Psychology (working with Dr Anthony Wagner). During that time, his work aimed at understanding the mechanisms of functional segregation (who does what?) as well as functional integration (how does it all come together?) in the MTL.

Postgraduate supervision

Applications are welcome from doctoral or post-doctoral researchers interested in:

episodic memory

functional neuroimaging

sleep research

computational modeling

advanced fMRI/EEG analyses

Research

Dr Staresina's goal is to advance our understanding of human memory. What are the building blocks of our memories, and how are they assembled by the brain? Utilizing an array of cognitive neuroscience methods (fMRI, iEEG, MEG, behavioral testing), his research targets all three stages of episodic memory: the initial encounter (encoding), post-encoding consolidation processes during sleep and awake rest (offline periods) and the final recall (retrieval).

Over the last few years Dr Staresina has focused on the principles of functional segregation and integration across medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions. Future work will both ‘zoom in’ to elucidate the different roles of hippocampal subfields/entorhinal cortex (using 7T high-field fMRI) and ‘zoom out’ to understand the interactions of the MTL with prefrontal and parietal cortices (using functional and effective connectivity analyses).

To further elucidate the neural mechanisms of memory and to ‘look under the hood’ of fMRI data, I will use intracranial recordings obtained directly from the hippocampus as well as surface EEG/MEG recordings coupled with advanced oscillatory analyses (e.g. cross-frequency coupling). Once we have a better understanding of the intricate mechanisms supporting episodic memory, we can start improving specific memory deficits such as those resulting from neurodegenerative diseases or even alleviate the debilitating effects arising from unwanted memories as seen in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).